book review

So this is the sequel to EAT BRAINS LOVE, which I briefly mentioned a little while ago. Book 1 ended in a precarious place, our protagonists on the run. Book 2 continued at the same speed and took us into new states, different kinds of societies, and a few new kills (duh. it’s a book about zombies). Book 2 got better at giving the female protagonist some dimension (her story was kinda flat in book 1), which was a good thing. I would complain that that there wasn’t enough closure, but I have the sneaking suspicion that another book might be on the way.

Ridiculous plot: Teen boy tragically dies of a terminal illness– but is brought back to life 5 years later with his head attached to another person’s body. Everyone and everything –but him– has aged and changed. Despite the ridiculousness of the situation and a multitude of comedic lighthearted moments and teenage antics, surprisingly deep instances often make it through. Totally recommended YA read. Check it out.

EXPRESS BOOK REVIEW: Eat Brains Love by Jeff Hart

One protagonist has just “gone zombie,” and is now on the lam with the class hottie (who’s also gone zombie) after eating half the kids in the school cafeteria. Our other protagonist is a teen psychic who works for the government’s top-secret zombie hunting operation. Lots of fun, adventure, and cannibalism! (It’s quite endearing). Check it out!

Bummer that he was such a jerk (albeit with apparently charming moments). Being an arty person myself, and spending lots of time with artists, I have very little patience for people who feel like they can treat others badly just because they made rad art. But still, as I stood in Uniqlo looking at their brilliant and desirableSPRZNY line of artist shirts, I couldn’t bring myself to feel ok about buying the shirt I liked with Basquiat’s art on the front. He was just too mean to poor Suzanne. (Did I buy garments with other artists’ designs? Yes. Do I feel bad about the sweatshop factor? Yes. Will I probably continue to buy products from this line because it does a genius job of showcasing the artists I love? Probably. Siiiigh. BUT there is hope! J Morrison is an artist who makes some really awesome artist themed shirts. Ethically. There are still a few left. I’ve bought a few and they’ve made my life awesome. BUY THEM, cuz OMG. )

But back to Widow Basquiat— this is a beautifully written book. It poetically explores the lives of both Jean-Michel Basquiat and his longtime off-and-on lover Suzanne Mallouk. Even if you don’t care for the art, or weren’t in NY for the 80’s, you’ll love the story (if you go for that romantic artistic kind of stuff). Check it out!!

I thought it was awesome, and have been recommending it to library patrons like crazy.

The basic plot is that Darling and her peers grow up in a shantytown in Zimbabwe with memories of the past (when they had school and food and before their town got bulldozed to make way for fancy rich people houses) and dreams for the future (move to America or to the fancy rich people houses that were built atop their old neighborhood). The surprisingly plucky and resilient kids (despite some pretty gnarly circumstances) steal fruit from the rich, play games in the dirt, and have some surprising impressions of their sparse interactions with NGO workers. It’s simultaneously heartbreaking and warming, told in really talented writing.

Eventually Darling moves to America to live with her aunt. Her new life has shelter and indoor plumbing and plenty of food- but there is a whole slough of new issues for Bulawayo to skillfully tell the story of. For reals, just check out a copy.

If you want to talk about an epic 2015 children’s book that is simply SCREAMING to be taught at school so it can wedge its way into our culture just like The Giver did 20 years ago, start talking about Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan. You may as well read it now, because you’re going to be hearing a whole lot more about it (if your daily life involves children’s/YA lit).

My only complaint is that the end isn’t super believable if you’re an adult– but that’s only like 30 pages of around 500. Ignore my complaint for now if you want to be surprisingly impressed with how far you will be taken the story of a sort of magical transcontinental harmonica (for real) that affected some kids’ lives at pivotal times in history. I was particularly impressed with the amount of historical research that seemed to go into this book.

So as my financial state has shifted from being broke as a joke (full-time student with a no-benefits “perma-temp” job that barely covered rent, food, and utilities) to having things like stable income, health insurance, and enough excess money to contribute to both a savings account and my student loan debt– I think a lot more about buying things. I do, in fact, buy a lot more things. I also read fashion industry blogs, and contribute to clothes-related Kickstarter campaigns. A higher influx of cash has even increased my time in thrift stores: reading all those fashion industry blogs helps me learn which clothes at the Goodwill are fancy, and that makes me want them (it’s a strange thing! I didn’t plan on getting materialistic in this way!). So as a result, I sometimes wear $300 jeans (that I got for $8.49 thank you very much), I have a $7 organic cotton coat made by some small designer (that apparently retails for a price even higher than the jeans), and I have a few $2.49 t-shirts from the local company that sells them for $40 apiece. As a person who generally thinks that capitalism and materialism are kind of evil, I definitely have some mixed feelings about this new interest. However, there has been a positive development from all of this. I’ve started reading clothes labels.

As a vegan, I’ve been reading food labels for 15 years– but it hadn’t occurred to me to look at clothes labels until more recently. There’s the care instructions (which I don’t really care about), the fabric content (which can tell you a lot about a garment’s quality), and, of course, the “Made In _________” section. Since having more money, I’ve started reading clothes labels, and have become increasingly interested in where items are made. Sure, this can often predict quality. But in addition, now that I have more resources (a.k.a. $$$$), I can afford to try to acquire “stuff” that was maybe more ethically and locally made. I don’t have to go for the cheapest or easiest garments right now in my life.

This brought me to “A year without “made in China” : one family’s true life adventure in the global economy” by Sara Bongiorni. I ordered this book from the library because I’m so curious about other peoples’ paths in similar pursuits/interests. In the same vein of so many other socially-slanted memoirs, the author does an experiment that takes place over the span of a year in effort to draw some big conclusions about the society we live in. In the case of Bongiorni, she noticed that it seemed like everything in her house was made in China these days– and so much of it was bad quality and/or taking up space.
We’ll start with the good: The book is very readable. I’m always impressed when nonfiction has a fiction-esque narrative. I also want to give major props for writing a book on the topic– I’m sure it’s scary to attack mainstream consumerist habits in a public forum. Also, she did it. With a spouse, kids, and a lifestyle in suburbia. That’s big. I read it in about a day, which was nice because I had a bunch of books in my “to read” stack.

There were some parts that I wasn’t super thrilled about. I didn’t really like the author’s voice that came through– the way she regarded her spouse, how she seemed to interact with others. We probably wouldn’t be pals IRL. Also, sourcing. There was a serious lack of internet in this book (even though it’s from 2007, when e-commerce definitely existed), which meant there were lots of paragraphs devoted to driving around and looking for non-China products in stores. For example, at one point her kid needs new shoes, and it turns out that lots of kid shoes are made in China. So she goes to all the shoe stores, like ever, and reads tons of labels until she finally finds one pair that were made elsewhere. She spends weeks doing this. I would just go online and either search for “made in usa shoes” (they do exist, barely), or browse a shoe store website for non-China countries of origin (in this book, the author was OK with Taiwan and other countries like Vietnam, Indonesia, etc). Same with the coffee maker. It seems that they bitterly abstained from coffee for the year when their coffee maker broke and everything at the store was made in China. They could have bought an Aeropress or gotten theirs repaired…

I could nitpick a little more, but I don’t want to spent forever whining about what was an interesting project. I think other authors could probably expand on this project (e.g. only buy “made in USA for 1 year), and I would be thrilled to read their books.

This novel is pretty obscene! The general plot is that an ass-related shaving accident lands our 18 year-old female protagonist in the hospital and follows both her memories leading up to the present– and intermingles them with her present behavior in the hospital.

My initial reaction is that the book was written wholly to shock– there’s something shocking, super-sexual, cringe-worthy or “dirty” (both the literal and figurative meanings) on pretty much every page (literally). You know that feeling you get from watching the “Two Girls, One Cup” or “Tub Girl” videos online, right? (e.g. one thing that our protagonist allegedly likes to do is pull out a tampon, wipe it on the ground, and then pop it back into her vagina). Every page is like that. It felt a little tiresome– almost as if the author was trying too hard.

But then I thought back to the description that I originally read that lead me to acquire this book (where is it, I don’t know). It was all about chucking traditional notions of feminine behavior and unreasonable expectations of feminine chastity and cleanliness and reclaiming sexuality and bodies– and that helped me think of it more as an artistic or political statement. So now I’m thinking that the book might be a little genius even if it was totally intense to read?

Lisa Wilde taught for a bunch of years at a NYC high school for students who the mainstream system wasn’t working for. This zine series-turned-book is all about her time teaching and interacting with her students. Like any interaction with teens, there are moments that are hilarious or uplifting– and moments that are fucking tragic.

It’s nicely drawn and compellingly put together, and I found myself bummed when I reached the last page in less than an hour or two. Thematically, it reminds me a little bit of Truckface (which is a really great zine), but we don’t hear as much about the protagonist. Get it and read it!!

Lahni’s black but has white parents and is the only black girl at a mostly-white school. As her parents’ relationship crumbles,the bullies at school are bitchy, and a creepy guy starts following her around, she simultaneously starts going to church and hears gospel music for the first time. It turns out that Lahni has an amazing voice and the music and church inclusion (with other black people) starts to fill in something that was missing and changes everything…

This is a well-written book that was clearly created with an agenda (teen problem novel) and lots of love. As a reader I found myself rooting for Lahni the entire time– even if there wasn’t as much description to Lahni’s personality or background behind her singing that I would have hoped for. Still quite good though! Check it out!

Epic YA fiction! American Teenage Mariam is sent against her will to live for a while with her grandmother in Egypt. She is initially pretty bummed to leave the only life she knows (her peers at school have given her lots of crap about being Egyptian-American, so she carries a heavy dose of self- and cultural distaste). It turns out her grandmother isn’t bad and there’s lots of stuff to do (as well as some time for self-discovery, first love, first adultish independence, etc). But shit kind of hits of the fan due to the revolution going on (as well as some other stuff), and lots of growing has to be done. Amidst a great story, the book also subtly does lots of good work to dispel stereotypes about the Middle East and Arabs and Islam.